Disabled Asians Learn "Empowerment" in Japan
By Kay Schriner (kays@uark.edu)
Nine Asians with disabilities have just finished an extensive training program aimed at empowering them for disability rights activism in their home countries.
Sponsored by the Japanese Society for Rehabilitation of Persons with Disabilities of Tokyo, individuals with disabilities from Mongolia, South Korea, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Nepal, the Philippines, Malaysia, Pakistan, and China spent 10 months in Japan to learn about the disability rights movement and social change strategies.
The program's chief feature was its focus on active learning. Participants were required to learn and use Japanese (either spoken or signed) to allow them to communicate with each other and with their Japanese hosts. Then they traveled to locations all over Japan to visit organizations dealing with disability issues. At night, they debated each other and planned what they would do when they returned to their own countries.
Taking the lessons back home
Judging by the participants' comments, the training was successful in raising consciousness about the status of people with disabilities and the need for disabled people themselves to take action to improve conditions. Attanayake Hemantha Kumara, from Sri Lanka, said that he had learned that people with disabilities can work. He's now determined to start a company at home to create jobs for them. Another participant, Lokesh Khadka from Nepal, said he wanted to start a sign-language interpreter training school when he goes back.
Masako Okuhira, who helped organize the training, says this kind of awakening was common. "Many of the nine used to just accept how things were, and how they were treated," she said. "They did not see their problems as social problems. But the training sessions and daily debates in Japan turned them into assertive, strong individuals."
The participants came to know each other well during the arduous training program and have vowed to keep in touch so they can continue learning from and supporting each other.
The training is one of several events marking the last year of the Asian and Pacific Decade of Disabled Persons. A series of closing forums will be held later this year in Japan.
Information for this story was taken from on-line version of The Japan Times.
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